STUCK WITH YOU

Sarah

“Hi..um...my name is Sarah Nelson and we cannot be paired up..” I said as Shawn stayed a few feet from me, smirking as he always did when I was around.

“And why not?” Mrs. Lopez asked as she crossed her arms over her chest, “Both of you were late to my classroom and the others are paired up this year. Is there something I should know?”

“I am surprised you don’t,-”

“Don’t listen to her,” Shawn said, leaning against the desk with his palms, “We’re perfectly fine pairing up with each other. I didn’t ask her to prom—lover’s quarrel..”

“That’s a lie!” I yelped, “You,-”

“Come on now,” Shawn said, smiling at me, “I won’t bite, I promise...”

I glared at him.

How could he continue to torment me for seven years?

How could they let him get away with it?

I should have transferred schools, but was talked out of it by my drunkard Father.

“Look, I know I’m new, but I am sure the two of you can get along while working on these projects?” Lopez asked, “Please?”

“But,-”

Shawn stepped towards me, “Please...what?”

I knew he could make my life hell.

He could make anyone’s life hell.

Shawn

I relished in her agony, but I was a sadist—at least in the eyes of my peers, a few of my friends—her.

Whatever there was between us certainly wasn’t love and adoration.

“Fine..” Sarah shook her head, “But look up what Shawn Connor,-”

“I was 13—she won’t find shit.”

Lopez raised her eyebrows, “Excuse me?”

I smiled, “We’re leaving...”

I knew I shouldn’t have, but I dragged Sarah out of the classroom with a strong grip.

She wasn’t afraid of me, but she let me have it in the hall.

“Get the fuck off me!” She hollered as we stood in front of her locker, “I cannot believe you. After what you did to me! You think this is funny?”

“I was a kid...you were a kid...” I shrugged it off, “Lopez is new. If she likes you,-”

Sarah slammed her locker shut, “No, Shawn...they’ll never care what YOU did..not the fucking popular dick head of the town.”

I let her walk away.

People didn’t walk away from me, but I let her.

I liked her, but she didn’t know it.

Her attitude, her sass, her body.

I’d liked it since I was a kid, but now that we were both seniors in high school, I was going to have my fun with her one last time.

Sarah

“Just get home...just get home..” I kept saying to myself, “Jerk face...jerk face....jerk face...”

My father had tried to call all afternoon, but I was busy—busy in my own duress.

Not that he cared because the bottle was more important to him.

He had swindled all the money away we’d gotten from the settlement from Shawn’s family.

“We aren’t taking this to court.”

“Yes, we are!” My Mom had protested, “For the love of God, Kent, she was assaulted.”

“She wasn’t.”

“She WAS.”

“Taking a video,-”

“Taking a video is ASSAULT,” my mother coughed, blood coming up into her palm, “Oh...my God..”

She was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer not even a week later.

We lost her that winter.

I lost my advocate.

I lost my best friend.

My father loved the money and he didn’t care about what happened to me.

The video that Shawn took of me after my swim meet was one of me in the showers.

We were thirteen and I’d never hated someone so much in all of my life.

He had money—his father was on the city council.

My father decided not to press charges, my mother wanted to.

We settled—MY FATHER—settled out of court.

Now, we had no money, I had no mother, and I was paired up with the man who got away with videotaping me in the showers.

At least the video was gone, but no one forgot about it.

Especially me...